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A mohel (Hebrew:????, plural mohelim) is a Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish man who performs the Jewish ritual of Brit milah
Brit milah

Brit milah , also berit milah , bris milah or bris is a religious ceremony within Judaism to welcome infant Jewish boys into a covenant between Names of God in Judaism and the Children of Israel through ritual circumcision performed by a mohel , on the eighth day of the child's life unless health reasons or certain spe...
 (circumcision).

Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s, circumcision is mandatory, as it is prescribed in the Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
:





ically, the infant's father is commanded to perform the circumcision himself. However, as most fathers are not comfortable or do not have the training, they designate a mohel as a delegate.






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A mohel (Hebrew:????, plural mohelim) is a Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish man who performs the Jewish ritual of Brit milah
Brit milah

Brit milah , also berit milah , bris milah or bris is a religious ceremony within Judaism to welcome infant Jewish boys into a covenant between Names of God in Judaism and the Children of Israel through ritual circumcision performed by a mohel , on the eighth day of the child's life unless health reasons or certain spe...
 (circumcision).

Biblical origins

For Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s, circumcision is mandatory, as it is prescribed in the Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
:

  • In the book of Genesis
    Genesis

    Genesis or Breishit is the first book of the Bible used by Judaism and Christianity, and the first of five books of the Pentateuch or Torah....
     as a mark of the Covenant
    Covenant

    A covenant, in its most general sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action.More specifically, a covenant, in contrast to a contract, is a one-way agreement whereby the covenanter is the only party bound by the promise....
     between God
    God

    God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
     and the descendants of Abraham
    Abraham

    Abraham is a man featured in the Book of Genesis and an important figure in several monotheistic religions. Judaism, Christianity and Islam traditions regard him as the founding Patriarchs of the Israelites, Ishmaelites and Edomite peoples....
    : "Throughout all generations, every male shall be circumcised when he is eight days old...This shall be my covenant in your flesh, an eternal covenant. The uncircumcised male whose foreskin has not been circumcised, shall have his soul cut off from his people; he has broken my Covenant" (Genesis 17:1-14), and


  • In Leviticus
    Leviticus

    Leviticus is third book of the Torah , the name given in Judaism to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible .Leviticus contains laws and priestly rituals, but in a wider sense is about the working out of Covenant set out in Genesis and Exodus - what is seen in the Torah as the consequences of entering into a special relationship with God...
    : "God spoke to Moses, telling him to speak to the Israelites: When a woman conceives and gives birth to a boy...And on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised." (Leviticus 12:1-3).


Functions

Biblically, the infant's father is commanded to perform the circumcision himself. However, as most fathers are not comfortable or do not have the training, they designate a mohel as a delegate. The mohel is specially trained and a specialist in circumcisions and the rituals surrounding the procedure. Many mohelim are doctors or rabbis (and some are even both) or cantors. However, all are required to receive appropriate training both from the religious and medical fields.

Traditionally, the mohel uses a knife and not a scissor to circumcise the newborn; glass was never used. Today, doctors and some non-Orthodox mohalim use a clamp before they cut the skin. The clamp makes it easier to be precise and shortens the recovery time. However, Orthodox mohalim have rejected the clamp arguing that by crushing and killing the skin it causes a great amount of unnecesary pain to the newborn. More importantly, the clamp cuts off the blood flow completely, which according to Jewish law is dangerous to the child and strictly forbidden.

Female Mohel

The Conservative Movement also certifies mohelot (female mohelet.) While Orthodox Judaism does not specifically prohibit a female mohel, there are many other halakhot that make a female mohelet more than acceptably complicated. Therefore, the Orthodox stay more traditional and only allow male mohelim.

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